New project in progress

[Bramus]

Working on a site for a small company.

What you need to know
The layout is based on the previous layout cause that is what the customer wanted, i modified it a bit and got something like this: http://www.pegefoodtec.nl/pages/nl/bedrijfsprofiel.php 

I'm kinda stuck, i do not like it very mutch and was hoping some people here could help me a bit. What would you change on the design/layout?

Link: http://www.pegefoodtec.nl/pages/nl/bedrijfsprofiel.php  (this is the only page that has content)

[crnogorac081]

On my screen it looks like this (see image attahed)

What I dont like is that orange and grey line go right to the end of window.. Maybe you should put site in center


just my suggestion..

cheers

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[Luisehahne]

On my screen it looks like the capture from crnogorac081

I did'nt understand the problem.

Dietmar

[crnogorac081]

he is asking for suggestions to improve design

[Bramus]

Thanks for the reply's

Indeed that would be an improvement, but the customer asked to build it like this. In the old design he had it exactly the same and he wanted to keep that, only the logo is changed and the menu is different as before.

Customer was pretty statisfied with the work this far, but i'm not really statisfied, i think some pics next to the logo with some lightbox give the site a more interactive feeling and some more color. What do you think of that?

Thanks for reply's!

[crnogorac081]

well,

considering that your client is satisffied, I wouldn't be worried at all if I were you.. Its not important are you satisfied..if client is..

cheers

[Bramus]

thats true, but if i can improve the site it is always better, discussed with the customer that we add some pictures in the "header" so it gets a bit more color

[Argos]

Hi Bramus,

the design isn't "right". For example the colored bars in the header and footer start halfway and stretch to the tight, while the content starts left and ends halfway. It's bad design, and you should tell your client that. Don't be afraid to put it bluntly. it's not a matter of personal taste, it's just bad design. Any proper designer will agree to that. Bad design devaluates the perceived value of the site and the company.

Also the graphical elements are not ligned up. There is no visual coherence, so the site looks chaotic. In the attachment you see what effect it has when things are properly placed. BTW: the design is not browser-compatible, different browsers show different layouts, and some mess stuff up.

I recommend to give the content a bit more 'breating space'. It just looks more relaxed. I did that in my example.

The logo is awful in my opinion. The name is actually quite nice, and strong identity. But that handwritten stuff and the blots... Who ever made that up?? In my screenshot you see a version of how I would do it. But I'm sure that's not an option to discuss with your client  

Also please check the color orange. You use different shades of orange, that are close, but not the same. I would recommend to use another color, size and font for the headers as well. They look too much like links now. In my pic you see a quick alternative.

Last I would advise to check the texts. I see several errors (for example "knol gewassen" instead of 'knolgewassen" in the left menu), and poor writing. I see lots of "men doet zus en zo" and other awkward writing. Bad texts are as devaluating for the perceived value of your client as bad design.

So instead of focussing on whether or not adding pictures, I would focus on allround quality control. The design is simple, and should be flawless.

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[Argos]

considering that your client is satisffied, I wouldn't be worried at all if I were you.. Its not important are you satisfied..if client is..

That's an interesting discussion. Personally I will always try my utmost to get the site to satisfiy myself as well. Over the years I have become more strict on that, and even turned a few assignments and prospects down for that reason. If I'm not happy with my own product, I won't create or publish it. But things were different in my early years when I had to struggle for each euro...

Of course it's perfectly allright to adhere to the "client is king" principle, even if it means to do things you don't like, but I just can't do it myself.

What do others do when clients want things you don't like (not for personal taste reasons, but from a professional point of view)?

[crnogorac081]

I had very special task a year before. I was making the site with one design I liked, but at the end the design was different and I didnt like it much. But it was made by a pro designer so I couldnt do anything myself as the customer hired that designer.

If I have to do all by myself, of course I wouldnt hesitate to do all I think its the best, and then present it to the customer..

In the case of the following topic, the design was already determined by the client and he dont want to change it..

That is why I wouldnt worry...the customer wanted this, the customer got it

cheers

[Bramus]

@ Argos
Thanks for the info, about the logo, nope no discussion possible done by a "pro designer" and already in use for about 1/2 years.

About the text, made by the customer, copied from the old website.

About the design, the menu is not really my thing, and i just dont like the design how it is now, but the customer wanted to use the elements from the old site The elements are the header with the grey/orange. Also i know i used different colors orange, but thats also because of the old design he moved from that company and the design "was protected by them" so he couldnt use it anymore and he wanted something that looks the same, but its just awfull like you said. So gonna try some other things and hope i will make it a bit better and trying to statisfy myself and the customer.

[Bramus]

did a big update on the layout new comments are welcome still working and some bugs in it  but hope to get in touch with the customer this week again so we can discuss the images on the site as the customer is a lot out for work ( traveling around the world).

[LordDarkman]

I thing it's ok like this. Only thing what I found is at the enlish side. Processing equipment doesn't fit in the menu.
Than I found 14 errors  in the template. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pegefoodtec.nl%2Fpages%2Fnl%2Fbedrijfsprofiel.php%3Flang%3DNL&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0&verbose=1&user-agent=W3C_Validator%2F1.654
Most of them because non ending images. make it like this <img ...... />.

CU Moritz

[Bramus]

About the errors, i know, this is because it is still in developement and i didnt clean the code yet

Waiting for the customer to provide me more pictures so i can start working on this again.

[Boudi]

Hi Bramus,

Like the design, typicall my style   

One thing I did notice within a second...the orange/grey top. The orange border bottom is tight, the grey border bottom is a bit fade. therefore the 'tightness' of the complete bottom borderline interrupts.

See att. what I mean and how it looks more tight.

Overall I didn't check the whole thing, but the lay-out looks chill 

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[Bramus]

ok i see what you mean, will change it. Thanks for the comments!

Btw also working on a new project that i will post soon